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WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights
New York: New York University Press (2025), vii, 375 pp.
"Known by the popular nickname “ZapZap” in Brazil and synonymous with the Internet across Africa and South Asia, WhatsApp has emerged as a major means of communication for millions of people around the world. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp offers a closed, e
...
Encrypted Messaging and Extreme Speech: Policy Directions
Munich: Ludwig-Maximilian Universität (LMU); Center for Digital Dignity (2025), 58 pp.
"The report highlights interventions in six main categories, namely: Platform governance; Mitigating digital influence operations; Supporting research; Strengthening fact-checking; Awareness raising and capacity building; Leveraging artificial intelligence responsibly. The recommendations highlight
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Reaching Hard-To-Reach Communities: Using WhatsApp to Give Conflict-Affected Audiences a Voice
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, volume 27, issue 1 (2024), pp. 107-121
"This article provides an original and timely contribution to current cutting-edge methodological debates by discussing the ongoing need to ensure communities in zones which are inaccessible through war, conflict or disease still have a voice and are not side-lined. As seen during Covid-19, traditio
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Online Disinformation in Brazil: A Typology of Discursive Action of Harmful Political Content on WhatsApp and Facebook
International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 2685-2709
"This article investigates harmful political content in public WhatsApp and Facebook groups of the radical Right in Brazil. Considering harmful political content as that which generates direct damage to the quality, reasonableness, and plurality of public discussion, we investigate the enunciative a
...
WhatsApp 360: A Look into the WhatsApp News Ecosystem in Lebanon Focusing on Misinformation and Hate Speech
Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation (2023), 39 pp.
"1. Expansive reach and influence of WhatsApp groups: The study findings indicate that WhatsApp groups have a remarkably wide reach, potentially connecting with three quarters of WhatsApp users in Lebanon. These groups are part of larger networks, which enhances the dissemination of content. Moreove
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Instant Messaging meets Diary Studies: Employing WhatsApp in Audio Diary Research with Female Journalists in Burkina Faso
ZQF Zeitschrift für qualitative Forschung, volume 24, issue 1 (2023), pp. 139-155
"This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of using instant messaging (IM) technologies for diary studies. The discussion shows that IM as well as diary methods are both highly adaptable and flexible tools for qualitative data collection. In combination, they allow for innovative designs
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WhatsApp and Transparency: An Analysis on the Effects of Digital Platforms’ Opacity in Political Communication Research Agendas in Brazil
Profesional de la Información, volume 32, issue 2 (2023), 14 pp.
"This article aims to discuss what we call environmental opacity, a condition of mobile instant messaging services (MIMS) that operates on the basis of end-to-end encryption systems. Utilizing WhatsApp as a specific example, the article presents two fundamental dilemmas around which some issues conc
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Disinformation in the Global South
Deep Insights
Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell (2022), xxv, 237 pp.
"In many parts of the Global South, coordinated political disinformation campaigns, rumor, and propaganda have long been a part of the social fabric, even before disinformation has become an area of scholarship in the Global North. The way disinformation manifests in this region, and responses to it
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Primeiro turno: Eleições 2022. Especial mensageria: Narrativas, estratégias e fluxo de desinformação
NetLab; Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (2022), 60 slides
"Neste relatório, o NetLab UFRJ reúne os principais resultados do monitoramento de redes de desinformação multiplataforma a partir dos aplicativos de mensageria. Analisando 115,3 mil mensagens veiculadas em grupos públicos do Whatsapp e 180,9 mil em grupos e canais públicos do Telegram, identi
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The Trust Gap: How and Why News on Digital Platforms is Viewed More Sceptically Versus News in General
Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2022), 71 pp.
"Drawing on an original dataset of survey responses collected in the summer of 2022 across four countries - Brazil, India, the UK, and the US - they examine the relationship between trust in news and how people think about news on digital platforms, especially Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and YouTube
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WhatsApp Disruptions in Brazil: A Content Analysis of User and News Media Responses, 2015–2018
Global Media and Communication, volume 18, issue 1 (2022), pp. 113-148
"Brazilians have adopted WhatsApp as a national media and communication infrastructure over the past several years, although it is controlled by its private US-based owner, Facebook. This article explores the diverse, contentious and influential roles the app played in the country during disruptions
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Scientific Disinformation in Times of Epistemic Crisis: Circulation of Conspiracy Theories on Social Media Platforms
Online Media and Global Communication, volume 1, issue 1 (2022), pp. 164-186
"The spread of disinformation about science in social media has been a major concern worldwide, especially at a time of crisis in which all institutions that produce knowledge and truth, including science, are delegitimized or discredited by society. Given this, the purpose of this research is to ma
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We Love to Hate George Soros: A Cross-Platform Analysis of the Globalism Conspiracy Theory Campaign in Brazil
Convergence, volume 28, issue 4 (2022), pp. 983–1006
"The proliferation of conspiracy theories surrounding George Soros and the ‘Globalist invasion’ had been concentrated primarily in Eastern Europe, Russia and the United States. However, since Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential victory in Brazil, Soros has become a target of the far-right in the cou
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Overlooking the Political Economy in the Research on Propaganda
Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, volume 2, issue special issue (2021), 14 pp.
"A thematic meta-analysis – of recent literature on online propaganda in the context of the Global South, and 20 Facebook-funded research projects in 2018 – shows that research is overwhelmingly focused on the psychological and behavioral impacts of propaganda. This research advocates for promot
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The Business Environment for News Media in Zimbabwe
Internews (2021), 22 pp.
"There is a growing market for factual, independent, reliable, and affordable news delivered in diverse languages in southern Zimbabwe. The local revenue sources to fund those efforts are not apparent. In an area of deep poverty, which has only been amplified by natural disasters and pandemic, large
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WhatsApp Audios and the Remediation of Radio: Disinformation in Brazilian 2018 Presidential Election
Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, volume 18, issue 2 (2020), pp. 139-158
"This article brings the results of an investigation into the role of WhatsApp audio messages in the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, proposing that instant voice messaging borrows elements from radio language. We started from a broader research, conducted by the Brazilian National Institute o
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Images and Misinformation in Political Groups: Evidence from WhatsApp in India
Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, volume 1, issue 5 (2020), 12 pp.
"WhatsApp is a key medium for the spread of news and rumors, often shared as images. We study a large collection of politically-oriented WhatsApp groups in India, focusing on the period leading up to the 2019 Indian national elections. By labeling samples of random and popular images, we find that a
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The Lebanese Uprising in the Digital Age
CyberOrient, volume 14, issue 2 (2020), pp. 85-98
"On October 17, 2019, following the announcement of a tax to be placed on calls made via the mobile communication application WhatsApp, thousands of Lebanese citizens took to the streets to protest against this arbitrary decision. The protest quickly morphed into a country-wide uprising in which cit
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Fake news: Acceptance by demographics and culture on social media
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, volume 17, issue 1 (2020), pp. 1-11
"Fake news has trumped up attention across cultures from the United States Elections to the Arab Spring. While political marketers have long used the language of fear and persuasion in their messaging, social media has intensified its impact. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence
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